Internet Learning Volume 1, Number 1, Fall 2012 | Page 56

Internet Learning—Volume 1—Number 1—Fall 2012

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Ethical, Academic, and Practical Considerations for Online Teaching: Does
the Search for Quality and Integrity Come at the Expense of Academic
Freedom?
Manfred F. Meine, Thomas P. Dunn & Robert Abbey
Troy University
Abstract
The Internet has evolved to be the new revolution in educational delivery. A 2008 Sloan Consortium
report on the state of online education in the United States revealed some startling information. For
example, at the turn of this century approximately 10 percent of post-secondary enrollments at degreegranting institutions were in online courses or programs; but, by 2007, the number had grown to over
20 percent. This growth translated into an average annual increase of nearly 20 percent at a time when
overall enrollment growth in higher education averaged only around 2 percent. Schools recognized that
students were voting with the click of a mouse, and, by 2007, the percentage of schools defining online
education as critical to their long-term strategy had grown to more than 70 percent of public
institutions and more than 53 percent of private colleges and universities. Online courses and programs
are now offered by universities large and small, including many of the nation’s most prestigious schools.
As schools throughout the nation have looked to the rapidly evolving technological medium as a solution
to education delivery challenges and as a way to expand existing education markets, the medium and its
accompanying technologies have evoked mixed reactions among students, administrators and faculty.
The pervasiveness and visibility of online instruction has served not only to magnify its strengths (e.g.,
the benefits that accrue to an asynchronous format) but to reveal areas of concern (e.g., maintaining
academic/ethical integrity, especially in online testing, and issues relating to oversight and acade